Cultural Training & Clinical Orientation

At RAHC, we are committed to ensuring that you have a successful placement and will be ready and able to deliver effective health services when you start work.

Whether it’s your first time working in remote health and/or in the Northern Territory or you have some previous experience, we will provide cultural training, clinical orientation and ongoing professional development opportunities through a range of specially prepared programs and materials.

Before you leave home

As soon as you have a confirmed placement we will provide you with a set of materials comprising RAHC’s Cultural Orientation Handbook (available for download below) and a community profile for the area in which you will be working.

The Cultural Orientation Handbook is designed to give you an introduction to working with, and living in, remote Aboriginal communities and to the cultural issues you will need to be aware of in providing health services.

The community profile will give you an overview of the particular region and community where you will be working including information about languages, history, geography and governance as well as some of the basic practicalities like community services and how the health centre in question is structure and operated.

Online Training Programs

The Remote Area Health Corps (RAHC) has developed a suite of online clinical training modules designed especially for health professionals working in remote Indigenous communities in the Northern Territory (NT). The RAHC Introduction to Remote Health Practice Program (online) has been developed as a training resource to provide timely, high quality, orientation and learning materials for RAHC health professionals preparing to work in remote health clinics and services.

There are currently 15 modules available including Chronic Disease Management, Communication and Education, Mental Health, Major Incident Management, Managing Medical Emergencies, Managing Scabies and Crusted Scabies and Sexual Health in the Primary Health Care setting.

Each module has been developed to provide a basic introduction to the topic and to orientate health professionals on how key skills and knowledge are practiced and applied in the remote health setting.

The program is available to the public and to all past, current and new RAHC health professionals including general practitioners, registered nurses, registered midwives, dental health and allied health professionals to complement the face-to-face training that is provided on arrival in the NT. To register for the program click here

Each module takes from one to two and a half hours to complete and has been developed to meet the criteria for professional development programs with the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners (RACGP), the Australian Primary health care Nurses Association (APNA), and the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine (ACRRM). Select modules have been endorsed with the Optometry Board of Australia (OBA), the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine (ASHM) and the Australasian College of Dermatologists (ACD) . Upon completion of a module you will receive a RAHC certificate of completion.

Health professionals with continuing interest in remote and Indigenous health are advised to seek further education. Award courses for preparatory and ongoing education for remote health professionals are available through Flinders University/Centre for Remote Health www.crh.org.au/

On arrival in the NT

At the start of your first RAHC placement you will arrive in either Alice Springs or Darwin and participate in RAHC’s Introduction to Remote Health Practice training program which includes Cultural and Clinical Orientation training. We have a program that gives you an intensive and comprehensive introduction to the many cultural aspects of remote health practice that will assist the health professional be a safe and effective team member when they arrive at the clinic or service to which they have been appointed. This cultural components of this program are delivered by local cultural trainers and thus are tailored and specific to the Top End or Central regions at the time of delivery.

The one-day Clinical Orientation is for General Practitioners and Registered Nurses/Midwives and provides a thorough introduction to the many cultural and clinical aspects of remote health practice and health delivery in Northern Territory Remote Primary Health Care centres. The Clinical Orientation program is delivered by RAHCs clinical team.

<a data-cke-saved-href="/sites/default/files/Introduction%20to%20Remote%20Health%20Practice%20WEB.pdf" href="/sites/default/files/Introduction%20to%20Remote%20Health%20Practice%20WEB.pdf" target_blank"="">RAHC is committed to providing health professionals that work through our organisation with the opportunity to continue their professional development in the area of remote health.

This program will continue to develop as RAHC responds to the needs and requests of our clients – the health services in the NT – and as RAHC learns of the needs and interests of the health professionals seeking to undertake RAHC placements and improve their skills in the areas of remote health practice.

Future Developments

RAHC is continuously looking at ways to improve and extend the training and orientation programs available to health professionals interested in remote health practice. Our goal is to have a skilled and motivated pool of health professionals that are confident in taking on remote health placements on an irregular or irregular basis depending on personal circumstances.

If you are interested in knowing about any other developments in RAHC’s training and orientation programs, enquire with RAHC and we will let all friends of RAHC know about these developments through regular updates.